DIGITAL SKILLS, STEM OCCUPATION, AND JOB AUTOMATION RISK AMONG THE OLDER WORKERS IN THE US

Abstract Rapidly advancing technologies are replacing human labor. Particularly, occupations with more routine tasks, such as sales and simple food preparations, are known to be at a higher risk of job automation than those with non-routine tasks, such as STEM occupations (e.g., engineering, health care). Additionally, an aging workforce generally faces higher job automation risks due to skill obsolescence and lower digital skills than younger counterparts. A better understanding of the associations between job automation risk, digital skills, and STEM (vs. non-STEM) occupations can facilitate preparations for continuing job automation and population aging. We analyzed a nationally representative sample of middle-aged and older U.S. workers aged 50 to 74 (n = 1,570) from the 2012/2014/2017 Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) restricted-use-file data. The estimated job automation risks (i.e., % of jobs to be automated in the next decades) by occupation were derived from the previous studies. PIAAC digital problem-solving skills proficiency (0-500 points) was assessed based on a series of practical digital tasks (e.g., sorting emails by responses in an application). Results of the survey-weighted linear regression showed that the greater digital skill proficiency (b = -0.04, p < 0.05) and STEM occupations (b = -17.18, p < 0.05) are associated with lower job automation risks, even after adjusting for a series of demographic, socioeconomic and civic engagement characteristics. Education and labor policy interventions to promote digital skills among older workers and non-STEM workers may better prepare the aging workforce for the future labor market in the U.S.

Nahyun Kim, Youjin Kim, Hyeonji Cho, and Kyungmin Kim, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea Losing a spouse is one of most painful experiences in adulthood; widowed adults often suffer from psychological difficulties.Scholars have examined how social support from close relationships such as family members and friends plays a protective role in the context of spousal loss.Given that the use of mobile technologies and internet became an important way to engage with social relationships, it is crucial to investigate the role of social media communication in the bereavement process.This study examined the moderating effects of social media communication in the association between widowhood and depressive symptoms, comparing different types of social media communication-chatting/messaging (e.g., iMessage), social media (e.g., Facebook), video-sharing (e.g., YouTube), and online community platforms (e.g., forums).From the 2021 Korea Social Integration Survey, we analyzed a sample of 5,238 respondents (aged 40+) who were ever-married.Our regression models showed that widowed respondents (9.79%) were likely to have more depressive symptoms (B = 0.19, p < .001)than non-widow(er)s; all types of social media communication were associated with fewer depressive symptoms, regardless of widowhood.We also found that two types of social media communication moderated the association between widowhood and depressive symptoms; such that widowed respondents who used social media (B = -0.08.p =.002) and online community platforms (B = -0.05.p = .038)more frequently had fewer depressive symptoms, compared to their counterparts.Our findings highlight the importance of examining social engagement via information and communication technologies and the potential mechanism contributing to widowed adults' well-being.Impairments in health and mobility, the loss of a partner, and geographic relocation increase the risk of social isolation and depression in older adulthood.As the world's most populous country, China faces a rapidly aging population, and Chinese society recognizes the potential of the Internet as a measure to reduce depression and promote well-being among older adults.WeChat is the most used social media among Chinese older adults, who use it to connect with social partners and exchange information by reading and posting messages.However, previous research only identified a correlation between WeChat use and lower depressive symptoms but failed to uncover the causality between them.This paper used data from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study and adopted an instrumental variable (IV) and the two-stage least squares model to strengthen causal inference.The principle is using an IV, which is correlated with WeChat use but not influenced by depressive symptoms, to replace WeChat use in regression.There were 1,680 participants (mean age 73.03, 55% male), 3% of whom reported use of WeChat in the past two years.
Regression results suggested that WeChat use did not lead to lower levels of depression among older adults; instead, only non-depressed older adults would use WeChat.Further analysis showed WeChat use could promote older adults' communication with family members and social activity engagement.Although there is no solid evidence of WeChat's effect on depression, it does provide some benefits and still holds the potential to promote the well-being of older adults.Do young and older adults have the same metacognitive schema for emotional utility?We examined young and older adults' knowledge of which emotion would be best for achieving a goal (e.g., anger for confrontation).We captured responses using both a discrete emotions framework (e.g., happy; Ekman 1992) and a dimensional/circumplex model approach (e.g., arousal and valence; Russell, 1980) to determine which framework is most useful for understanding age differences in utilitarian emotion knowledge.Seventy-five young and 66 older adults indicated the most useful emotion when playing video games associated with different goals (Approach, Avoid, Confront, Analyze).

EMOTIONS, EMPLOYMENT, AND WELL-BEING
Participants were asked to rate discrete emotions as well as identify the best combination of preferred valence and arousal on an affect grid.Two separate mixed-design ANOVAs were conducted for discrete emotion and dimensional ratings.Young and older adults exhibited similar preferences for both the discrete and circumplex model and chose the emotion with the most expected utility for each goal (e.g., happy for approach).One interesting age difference emerged where young adults endorsed the expected utilitarian emotion of sadness for the analyze goal to a greater extent than older adults.For the affect grid ratings, age differences were driven by arousal but not valence.We discuss how a discrete emotions approach may allow some clarity and a common language for interrogating the role of aging in utilitarian emotionality but may lack the nuance provided by the circumplex model.
Corporation, Arlington,Virginia,United States,5. RAND Corporation,Santa Monica,California,United States Rapidly advancing technologies are replacing human labor.Particularly, occupations with more routine tasks, such as sales and simple food preparations, are known to be at a higher risk of job automation than those with nonroutine tasks, such as STEM occupations (e.g., engineering, health care).Additionally, an aging workforce generally faces higher job automation risks due to skill obsolescence and lower digital skills than younger counterparts.A better understanding of the associations between job automation risk, digital skills, and STEM (vs.non-STEM) occupations can facilitate preparations for continuing job automation and population aging.We analyzed a nationally representative sample of middle-aged and older U.S. workers aged 50 to 74 (n = 1,570) from the 2012/2014/2017 Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) restricted-use-file data.The estimated job automation risks (i.e., % of jobs to be automated in the next decades) by occupation were derived from the previous studies.PIAAC digital problem-solving skills proficiency (0-500 points) was assessed based on a series of practical digital tasks (e.g., sorting emails by responses in an application).Results of the survey-weighted linear regression showed that the greater digital skill proficiency (b = -0.04,p < 0.05) and STEM occupations (b = -17.18,p < 0.05) are associated with lower job automation risks, even after adjusting for a series of demographic, socioeconomic and civic engagement characteristics.Education and labor policy interventions to promote digital skills among older workers and non-STEM workers may better prepare the aging workforce for the future labor market in the U.S.

EMPLOYMENT AND LIFE SATISFACTION IN LATER LIFE: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF SUBJECTIVE EXPECTATION
Si Young Song 1 , Bomi Choi 2 , Hayoung Park 2 , and Miseon Kang 2 , 1. Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea,2. Yonsei University,Seoul,Republic of Korea Although the productive aging framework has been emphasized to promote active roles such as employment to improve psychological well-being in later life, the mechanisms that explain the association between employment and life satisfaction remain unclear.Therefore, this study sought to examine the mediation role of subjective expectation about future living standards in the association between employment and life satisfaction among older Korean adults.The data was the 8th wave (2020) of the Korean National Longitudinal Study on Aging, and the sample included 4,238 older Korean adults aged 65 or above.Employment was coded as 0 when they are not working and 1 when working.Life satisfaction was measured by overall quality of life on a ten-point scale.Subjective expectation, the mediating variable, was measured by the subjective evaluation of future living standard on a ten-point scale (e.g., "I think my standard of living will get better in the future").PROCESS MACRO model 4 in SPSS 26.0 were utilized to test indirect and direct effects while gender, education level, household income, and presence of spouse were controlled for.As a result, employment had a direct effect on life satisfaction and indirect effects were also significant, indicating employment contributes to a higher level of life satisfaction through higher subjective expectation.The findings revealed that the mechanism between employment and life satisfaction among older adults can be explained through subjective expectation, indicating the importance of considering beneficial effects of employment that enhance psychological well-being when developing intervention programs for older adults.Existing theory and research highlights emotion control beliefs have important implications for emotion regulation and psychological well-being.Emotion control beliefs can be subdivided into four categories: the extent to which people believe 1) they can control their emotion (self-can beliefs), they should control their emotions (self-should beliefs), 3) others can control their emotions (others-can beliefs), and 4) other should control their emotions (others-should beliefs).To our knowledge, research has yet to examine how developmental factors are associated with emotion control beliefs in adults (i.e., age and non-normative experience of chronic illness).Past research highlights age related differences in emotional processes, and the influence of non-normative chronic illness on emotional well-being.Therefore, the present study utilized data from a lifespan sample of 47 participants (younger adults: n = 21, age range = 19-35, M = 27.55;older adults: n = 26, age range = 68-81, M = 72.40) to examine differences in emotion control beliefs among younger and older adults, people with and without chronic illness, and the interaction between these factors.Our analyses revealed levels of self-can beliefs were lower in people with chronic illness.In particular, younger adults with chronic illness reported the lowest levels of self-can beliefs.By contrast, among people without chronic illness, older adults reported lower levels of others-should beliefs, relative to younger adults.These findings inform theories of emotional aging, development, and health by suggesting emotion control beliefs vary with age and chronic illness.Experiencing discrimination has been associated with a variety of negative impacts such as poorer health and well-being.Some research has shown that those who experienced discrimination at an initial timepoint were more likely to have poorer health and well-being outcomes 20 years later through the mediating role of threat appraisals and stress reactivity.Research has demonstrated a link between experiencing discrimination and affective reactions to everyday stressful experiences, however, these associations have only been studied at the between-person level.For the current and Kate Leger, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States